Spoiler Alert: Tonight answered a few questions, but made a few more as well. Things answered tonight: Why does MiB want to leave the island, is he really evil, how did he become the smoke monster, where did Jacob come from and what is his beef with MiB? I was sure that because we see the birth of Jacob and MiB as twins on the island, that we might get some explanation as to why women can’t have babies on the island, but no.

So the first thing I want to jump into is this mother figure that raised Jacob and MiB; she was a mysterious woman. On the one hand she is sheltering them from man because all they know is greed and hate and war. She wanted to raise them with only the feminine side and not have the will to kill everything in site. However, on the other hand, she did seem a bit symbolically like Mother Earth carefully balancing the good and evil sides of life. She was also the keeper of this super secret fountain with light that she claimed to be the source of all life, death and everything in between. Does this make her a God? She never explains how she got there, but she was living alone on this island and only tells her son that she came from her mother, and looks up. She did tell Claudia, their real mom that she, like her, got here by accident.

She brings the adult Jacob to the fountain after realizing that she will never get her MiB back to protect it. She gives him a glass of wine and blesses it in some language and by him drinking from it, they have become one. Did anyone else notice that when they sat in front of the fountain, the light coming out of the top very closely resembled the light that came from the hatch when Locke had discovered it?

Next, let’s talk about the twins, Jacob and MiB also known in other stories as Cain and Abel. Siblings from Adam and Eve and as the story goes, Cain killed his brother, therefore committing the first murder. Cain is also referred to as “the evil one” in some stories, and Abel is sometimes referred to as the first martyr. This would directly upset the white is good and dark is evil concept that we’ve been leaning on. After seeing Jacob kill his brother in cold blood, he does seem a little evil. I was pretty surprised to see that they were siblings. I guess I thought that it would be too easy to think that. I really enjoyed seeing the chemistry between Jacob and MiB when they still got along. I began to understand the pain that MiB has and his desire to leave the island. Their mother had also made her two sons immortal and unable to harm each other.  However, it seems that Jacob did harm MiB in some way. By throwing his body into the fountain, we see how he was able to manifest as the smoke monster. I would say that harmed him in some way.

So, now that we know the MiB was pushed into the fountain light by Jacob, and the smoke monster came out, the light seemed to disappear, as if it’s now inside MiB. So is this why Jacob is fighting so hard to keep MiB on the island? If MiB leaves the island, the light would have left the island and therefore all the world as we know it would cease to exist or something along those lines? Was MiB supposed to be the protector of the island because he is much more special than Jacob? Jacob was always willing to believe what his mother told him, where as MiB had to find the truth to things himself. See any similarities to Jack and John Locke? Although, that just makes it ironic that MiB is now using Locke’s body to get things done.

Seeing how the game was started and where it has lead to was fascinating as well. A thirteen year old MiB walks along the beach and discovers a board game in the sand. He shows his brother and teaches him how to play, which he claims to just know how to play. This is the start to the game that leads to this whole mess that we call LOST. Later in the show, the boys are playing the game again and Jacob makes a move that MiB says he can’t do. He then says that one day, he can have a game where he can make up his own rules. Perhaps that answers why there are such strict rules for the two now on the island. What we are seeing now is and has been Jacob’s game that he created a long time ago. The game may have just evolved from the one we saw them playing here. If you noticed them playing the game as adults, it had already become more complex.

If you remember, Jacob says that he brings people to the island for progress. MiB says exactly what their mother had said about men, “they come, they fight, they corrupt and it’s always the same.” Is Jacob bringing people to the island because of mommy grief? She and MiB both think that people are evil and greedy. Jacob observes them differently, however, and is trying to prove that there are good people in the world. Did he just feel terrible for killing his brother and losing his mom, that now he is trying to make himself feel better by forever trying to find good people in the world? Do you think Jacob is good or evil?

This was one of those episodes that makes you want to go back and watch the whole season again to see if you catch anything new. At first, I thought it was a good episode that explained a lot, but later thinking about it I realize that there was a lot to this episode that is still sinking in. If I missed any more tips or plots that lead to something, just let me know. I am still trying my hardest to put this puzzle together. Only two more weeks left…

I give Across The Sea 4 “MiB invented Backgammon” out of 5.

by Angela Davis